Yesterday Todd Burus put up a post regarding his church’s general lack of receptivity to learning deeper theological points. let him explain what he means:
As someone who teaches frequently across several ages in the church, probably the largest complaint I have, or at least the complaint that I most frequently bother my poor wife with, is the fact that I often times feel I cannot go too deep with the material without losing a majority of the audience I am speaking with. This is not an indictment on their intelligence or desire to glorify God, but is just a general frustration at the fact that when several people are gathered in a room on Sunday morning or Wednesday evening for “Bible Study,” the overriding expectation to which they have been conditioned by years of church culture is one of discussion and venting about what is on their mind and not necessarily of mining out with precision and care the finer, deeper points of Scripture. Not only am I bothered by this, but I think it is symptomatic of much that is wrong in contemporary modern/post-modern American Christianity.
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Theology, as they’ve been taught, is boring, stuffy, and, this is the kicker, it often times leads to arguments. Therefore, it is much better to just avoid it then to run the risk of splitting the room over whether Romans 9 is corporate election to physical blessings or individual election to eternal life (it’s the latter, by the way).
go read all of it to see why learning theology is important for every believer.
In my experience teaching adults, I found there to be a hunger for learning deeper scriptural truths about God. that is why I shucked the Lifeway curriculum and just did straight expositional teaching. If anyone wanted to go to a “safer” class without occasional arguments like the one Todd mentions, then there were plenty of traditional model classes available.
what is your experience in your church? do you teach theological truths? Does your pastor from the pulpit? Are the people receptive to learning/wrestling with these things?
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